Crocodile Kills Pastor During Lake Baptism in Ethiopia

A Protestant pastor was killed by a crocodile while performing a baptism ceremony in Ethiopia’s Lake Abaya on June 3.

Pastor Dochio Eshete and about 80 members of his congregation were gathered on the shore of Lake Abaya for a traditional Christian baptism ceremony

During the ceremony the baptismal candidate and the pastor stood in waist-deep water and the pastor then proceeded to immerse the candidate fully.

A crocodile surfaces with a fish in its jaws from a lake in Malelane, South Africa, on Dec. 11, 2008. (Warren Little/Getty Images)

According to witnesses, Eshete was in the middle of the ceremony when a crocodile burst from the water and grabbed him.

“He baptized the first person and he passed on to another one. All of a sudden, a crocodile jumped out of the lake and grabbed the pastor,” local resident Ketema Kairo told the BBC.

Police Officer Eiwnetu Kano told The Telegraph that fishermen and members of the pastor’s congregation tried to rescue the pastor, using fishing nets to entangle his body and pull it free.

The efforts helped to stop the croc from dragging the clergyman into deeper water.

Crocodiles kill hundreds in Africa, where many people depend upon lakes and rivers for bathing and washing clothes. (Warren Little/Getty Images)

But by the time his rescuers managed to get Eshete back to shore, Eshete had died from bites to his back, legs, and hands.

“They only managed to get his dead body,” officer Kano told The Telegraph.

“They were unable to save him.”

Pastor Eshete presided over a church in the Merkeb Tabya district of the town of Arba Minch on the southern end of Lake Abaya. The lake, second largest in Ethiopia, is known to have a large population of crocodiles.

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